The jury of the Merlinka Award, which has been awarded since 2018 for the best queer film at FEST, this year, gave the award to the Greek film The Summer with Carmen (To kalokairi tis Karmen) directed by Zacharias Mavroeidis. The jury consisted of: Dragan Jovićević, screenwriter and director, Predrag Azdejković, director of the Merlinka Festival and Milan Aranđelović, writer.
In the explanation of the award, the jury says that because of the carefully and skillfully guided narratives of memories through the form of meta film, and especially because of playing with stereotypes of the gay community itself, as well as the environment and its acceptance of sexuality and otherness, but also of the art and artists themselves, who are equated with the term queer in this film, the jury gives the Merlinka Award to the film The Summer with Carmen by the Greek director Zacharias Mavroeidis.
In addition to the winning film, the French film Rosalie, the British film All of US Strangers, the Chinese film A Song Sung Blue (Xiao Bai Chuan), the American film High and Low and the Canadian films The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain) and Solo were nominated for the Merlinka Award.
